After a 3 month vacation, Kiki returns to find all is not as it was. A new witch has come to town, replacing Kiki from the minds of the townspeople. How will she cope with the sudden jealousy of her new rival and is there anything that she can do?

Flying over the familiar ocean on her
trusted broom, Kiki breathed in a deep breath of air. She was back
home. A year after leaving home to begin her training, Kiki returned
to share stories of her success and to see all of her friends and
family.

'Are you going to stay, Kiki?' her
mother had asked her at the dinner table soon after she had returned.
'There's still a lot you could learn back here.'

'I am grown up!' Kiki insisted. 'I
have my own business, my own successful business at that. I have a
lot of friends. You can't force me to stay!'

'Your mother's right, Kiki,' her
father said calmly. 'There is a lot more you could learn back at
home.' Kiki stared into her food angrily. 'But,' he father
continued, 'who are we to force you to do anything?' Kiki and her
mother looked to him, equally surprised.

'What?' they both said in unison.

'Well you've built a business up
over the last year,' he explained while cutting his food. 'We
can't make you abandon that. You've been flying very well and
developed some of your other talents.' He took a bite out of a
sausage. 'I don't think it'd be fair for us to hold you back.'
Kiki's face lit up. 'However,' he went on, 'we are still your
parents. We miss you, Kiki. We don't want you go right away. Can't
you stay for a week or two?' Kiki sighed and nodded. Her father put
his hand on her shoulder. 'That's my girl,' he said, giving her
a gentle squeeze. He looked over to his wife and smiled warmly at
her, a smile she reciprocated.

A week or two had turned into three
months. Kiki was making her grand return to Koriko, excited to be
returning after so long. Flying over the harbour, she waved merrily
at the fishermen who waved back. Kiki felt like she knew everyone in
the city. After becoming a local celebrity, business had started
booming and she made a lot more friends than she had previously. She
still worked in the bakery, which was still her humble home. She
still helped out Osono with work and took care of the baby when she
could. She still went flying with Tombo, who had finally built his
bicycle-powered aircraft; a vehicle Kiki had to save him from
occasionally when he got tired when he was too high. Kiki smiled to
herself as she drifted over the rooftops and beyond the clock tower.

'Kiki!' she heard a voice cry over
in the distance. From the window in the clock tower, she saw the
friendly caretaker waving over at her. Kiki flew over toward him and
hovered by the window.

'Hi, how are you?' she asked
perkily.

'My word, girl, it's been a
while!' he grinned. 'Where have you been?'

'Just took a break,' Kiki flew
closer and rested her foot on the ledge. 'I went to see my mom and
dad.'

'You should get them to see you,'
he suggested. 'It'll be good for them to see how successful you
are!'

'I don't want to brag...' Kiki
blushed.

'Well you got a lot to brag about,'
the caretaker nodded. 'Oh one of your friends has moved to town.'

'I'm sorry?' Kiki asked,
confused. 'All of my friends live in town already.'

'No, another witch.' Kiki's foot
slipped and she nearly fell off the broom. Recovering, she floated
back up to the window. 'You alright?'

'Another witch?' Kiki asked.

'Yeah,' he said, looking worried
all of a sudden. 'Are you okay?'

'Where is she?' Kiki asked.
'What's her skill?'

'It's a boy,' he explained. 'And
he's living just over there.' The caretaker pointed over to the
wealthier part of the city.

'A boy...' Kiki said quietly to
herself. She looked up and noticed the caretaker giving her a
meaningful look.

'You sure you're alright?' he
asked. Kiki gave herself a little shake and kicked away from the
clock tower.

'I'll see you later,' she called
as she flew over toward the bakery.

Kiki set foot in front of the front
door and put her broom over her shoulder. She hardly made it to the
front door before Osono stormed outside and embraced her.

'Oh Kiki!' she beamed, squeezing
tight. 'It's so good to see you again!'

'We've missed you so much! How are
your parents? Is it good to be back? Tell me everything that
happened...'

A short while later, over tea and hot
chocolate, Kiki and Osono had almost finished catching up. Jiji was
on the table, his face in a shallow bowl of milk. After answering
hundreds of questions that were all asked at once, Kiki leant forward
and changed the conversation to what she had wanted to talk about
since she had returned.

'So...' she said as casually as
possible, which ended up sounding so forced that Jiji even noticed.
He looked up from the bowl and gave Kiki a knowing look as a drop of
milk fell from his whisker. Kiki cleared her throat and ignored him.
'I've heard that there's a new witch in town.'

'Oh yes!' Osono said excitedly.
'He's wonderful, he really is.'

'Three months I've been gone and
he's already wonderful?' Kiki put on a fake laugh, lifting her
cup up to drink.

'I don't know if everyone loves
him...' she said. 'But he is very interesting.'

'What does he do?' Kiki asked.
'Does he fly? Can he perform magic? Make potions? See into the
future? What, what does he do?' Her questions came out faster than
Osono's, who just looked at her, slightly puzzled. She then
suddenly realised and let out a laugh.

'You're not jealous, are you?'
Osono asked.

'Jealous?' Kiki asked, putting on
a fake tone of surprise to her voice. 'Me? No, no. I'm not
jealous. Witches can go where they please... Even though there really
should only be one to each town.'

'Well there's nothing wrong with
having two,' Osono said reassuringly. 'Besides you weren't here
when he arrived.'

'Didn't anyone tell him you
already had a witch?' Kiki said, becoming upset. 'Or did everyone
forget about me?' Her eyes tearing up, Kiki looked away. Osono
stood up and went toward her.

'Oh, Kiki,' she said in a motherly
tone, taking her hand. 'No one has forgotten about you. Everyone
around here still loves you.'

'Really?' Kiki wiped her tears
away.

'Really,' Osono nodded. 'I mean
you've become such a wonderful part of our community. Even though
your training is over, you still came back.'

'I like it here,' Kiki smiled
weakly.

'And we all like you,' Osono
reassured. 'Don't worry. When everyone realises you're back,
they'll all come visit you and you'll see how silly you're
being.'

'I guess you're right,' Kiki
sighed, calming down. She looked up to Osono and smiled. 'Thank you
for making me feel better.' Osono waved her hand at her and gave
her a wink. Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of crying
from the next room. Sighing, Osono went for the door.

'I hope we'll all see you bright
and early,' she beamed. 'Kiki's Flying Delivery Service is back
from vacation!' Kiki grinned and nodded. Osono left and Kiki looked
over to Jiji.

'I'm being
silly, right?' she asked him. Jiji gave her a look that did not
reassure her...

*

The next morning Kiki dressed in her,
now famous, black clothes and red hair band. She looked at herself in
the mirror and smiled, knowing that people would be excited to see
her again. Or at least, she thought that they would be excited to see
her again. That being said, what if they hardly even noticed her?
What if the new witch was so impressive and so talented that everyone
had forgotten about her in just over three weeks? Three weeks... It
took Kiki much longer than that to be respected and admired in the
town and she only got that after saving Tombo's life. What did the
new witch have to do? Save the entire town from an asteroid or
something?

Kiki sighed dejectedly and stepped
outside of her room. Jiji and Lily were outside on the ledge, looking
at the ocean together. Lily looked over and jumped off the ledge and
brushed against Kiki's legs. Kiki smiled.

'At least someone still likes me,'
she said to herself. Walking down the stairs and across the
courtyard, she entered the bakery. Osono and her husband were busy
baking. He looked over and waved at him. Before he could say
anything, Osono interrupted.

'Kiki, you have a visitor,' she
announced. Kiki looked into the shop and saw Tombo stood there,
holding some flowers and checking his appearance in the reflection of
the store window. 'I was just about to get you,' Osono said as
Kiki hurried into the shop.

'Fine,' he grinned. 'My head's
as thick as a cannonball. When did you get back?'

'Yesterday,' Kiki said. 'I was
going to visit you but Osono and I...' Tombo waved his hands.

'Don't worry about it,' he said,
realising that he was waving the flowers around. 'Oh these are for
you.' Kiki took the most beautiful red roses from him and smiled
uncontrollably. From the back, Osono and her husband were watching.

'Oh, Tombo,' Kiki cried. 'They're
beautiful.'

'If I had known when you were coming
back,' he explained, 'I would have gotten you something much
nicer.'

'No, these are lovely.' Kiki
looked at him through his thick, goofy glasses and into his deep,
mature eyes. 'Thank you.'

'Well I can't take all the
credit,' Tombo said, blushing. 'The flowers were made by Xavier.'
Kiki took her eyes off the flowers.

'Xavier?' she asked. 'Who's
that?'

'Oh didn't you know?' Tombo
asked rather callously. 'He's the new witch. Only moved in about
three weeks ago.' From the back room, Osono and her husband were
making frantic hand gestures to make Tombo stop what he was saying.
'He's amazing. He's got so many talents, like the flowers. He
made the park bloom with roses and tulips and flowers I've never
even heard of. And when you pick them, they grow straight back. Isn't
that neat?'

'It's wonderful,' Kiki said, her
voice lacking the enthusiasm of Tombo's, who suddenly noticed Osono
waving in the back. Kiki saw that he was staring at something and
turned around sharply, causing Osono and her husband to duck back
behind the wall, crashing into some baking pans.

'Is everything alright?' Tombo
asked.

'Why do people keep asking me that?'
Kiki snapped, stepping behind the counter and throwing the roses into
an empty vase that Osono had conveniently left out for her.

'Uh...' Tombo thought for a
second. 'Because people think something is wrong?' Kiki turned to
look at him.

'Well I am fine, thank you very
much!' she said unintentionally patronisingly.

'You know...' Tombo stepped back,
'this reminds me of when we first met.'

'Speaking of first encounters,'
Kiki walked from behind the counter. 'I want to meet this new
witch; this Xavier. Where does he live? The rich district? What kind
of a name is Xavier, anyway? Is he foreign? Couldn't he have gone
to a town in his own country?'

'Well...' Tombo hesitated.

'Of course he could have!' Kiki
said loudly. She suddenly realised what she was saying and gave
herself a little shake. 'Well, let's go!' She opened the front
door.

Walking down the street, both Kiki and
Tombo were quiet. Tombo, being the gentleman, was carrying Kiki's
broom for her. A few people had waved at them and told Kiki that it
was good to her back, but not as many people did that as she would
have wanted or expected. Tombo looked over to Kiki who looked as if
she was marching rather than walking. Her fists were tight together
and her eyes were dead ahead.

'I know you're probably
disappointed,' Tombo said finally. 'About not getting the welcome
home you wanted.'

'Well I know the guys at the
Aviation Club would love to throw you a party,' he said, trying to
cheer her up. Kiki did not respond. Tombo looked forward and they
walked a little bit more in silence. Tombo let out a laugh and looked
back to Kiki. 'Remember when you tried teaching them how to fly?
And we all ended up jumping off hills and just rolling down, making
fools of ourselves?' A weak smile formed on Kiki's face.

'I told you that you can't fly,'
she said. 'But you didn't listen.'

'Hey, we all gotta try!' Tombo
laughed. 'At least it wasn't as bad as when we both went on your
broomstick and you jumped off to leave me to fly it.' Kiki laughed.
She had a clear image in her head of Tombo dropping straight into the
ocean as she landed on the harbour. Tombo stepped close to her. 'This
new guy doesn't have the memories that we've all shared with you
over the past year,' he whispered to her. 'Remember that.' Kiki
stopped and looked at Tombo.

A smooth swoosh noise came from up
above. Beams of coloured light passed overhead, as gracefully as a
bird flying through the sky. The light passed in between the
buildings and formed a ribbon around the clock tower. Kiki took her
broomstick and she and Tombo flew above the buildings to get an
unrestricted view of what was going on.

'What's happening?' Kiki asked
him.

'Just watch,' Tombo grinned, his
excitement annoying her.

The beams of light scrolled up around
the clock tower until they merged into two thick strands of
multicoloured light that faded in between colours. They merged at the
top at the steeple and suddenly a large beam of light was projected
over the city. Circular in shape, the magical light went over Kiki's
and Tombo's heads and spread out as far as the eye could see. It
was a dark blue in colour that had faint streaks of white moving in
around feely inside. It made a gentle, breezy noise as it passed
overhead. When the noise could no longer be heard; there was a faint
crackle. Then the only noise that came from the city were the gasps
of awe as from the light above them, snow began falling down to the
ground. As it fell and landed on rooftops or on the street, the snow
transformed into other multicoloured spheres of light before fading
away. Tombo reached out his hand and as a flake of snow landed on it,
it turned into a white rose.

'Wow...' he said. 'Look at
this!' Kiki ignored him as some snow fell before the light at the
steeple vanished and a single figure was left in its wake, holding
onto the steeple casually. The people on the ground were holding
similar presents. Some were flowers; some were small trinkets that
had specific meaning to the people holding them. Over at the bakery,
Jiji and Lily were looking at a small fake mouse. Kiki immediately
flew over to the clock tower.

The boy holding the rail was
undeniably young, probably the same age Kiki was when she first came
to the city. He had blonde hair a little shorter than Kiki's and
blue eyes that were the same colour as the ocean and almost as deep.
He wore more conventional clothes than Kiki had imagined, just a
black shirt and trousers with black shoes. He was slim and about the
same height as Kiki. As she approached him, he spun around the pole
and jumped into the air. Kiki stopped suddenly as, with no assistance
from a broom, the boy passed through the air and stopped just short
of the two. He held out his hand.

'Xavier,' he introduced himself.
'I have been looking forward to meeting you.' He spoke in a
smooth and elegant manner that annoyed Kiki. Nevertheless, she took
his hand and put on a smile.

'Of course it is...' Kiki said
under her breath. 'That was pretty impressive, though. That light
show. When I first came here, I was nearly arrested for flying
through the streets.'

'Oh, the mayor asked me to do this,'
Xavier said. Kiki lost control of the broom and lost altitude.
Regaining herself, she flew back up. 'Are you alright?' he asked.

'I'm fine!' Kiki insisted,
becoming more annoyed at the number of people who had asked her that.
'Why did they mayor ask you to do that?'

'He just wanted something to
celebrate his birthday,' Xavier explained.

'I've only ever met him once...'
Kiki muttered.

'Then you'll know he's a lovely
man,' Xavier smiled. 'This is a lovely city. I really like it
here.'

'Don't I know it...' Kiki said
quietly. Xavier leant forward.

'I hope there's not a problem,'
he asked, 'Two witches being here.' Kiki looked up at him.
'Because, you were here first and I can leave if-'

'No!' Tombo said suddenly. Kiki
gave him an angry glare. Xavier, sensing how uncomfortable Kiki was
feeling decided to leave.

'I should go,' he said. 'I'm
sure you're busy.'

'Actually we were going to visit
yo-' Tombo could not finish his sentence as Kiki silenced him by
kicking him in the shin.

'I'll see you soon, Kiki,'
Xavier smiled. 'It's so nice to know another witch!' He grinned
excitedly and moved backward through the air, jumping of the steeple
of the clock tower. As he passed over the city, Tombo leant forward.

'Why'd you kick me?' he asked,
rubbing his leg.

'So that's him, then?' Kiki
thought aloud.

'Sure is. Pretty cool, huh?' Kiki
watched Xavier as landed on the street and a crowd of people gathered
excitedly around him. Kiki sighed and looked at the clock tower. She
felt as if this was not her city anymore...

Author's Note: Thank you for
reading! If you've enjoyed what you've read so far, more will be
coming so keep an eye out. If you feel like it, please review or
comment and tell me what you liked. I always appreciate reviews so
don't be shy and stay tuned for updates. Andy

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.